What Is My Monthly Revenue?

Question. It's November. I have a site that made $230 in August, and then nothing in September and then another big fat $0 in October. What is my monthly revenue? If you think it's $230, please stay behind after class because I'd like you to help me with my accounts.

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OK, let's explore the options you have for calculating monthly revenue.

Take The Average

One method for determining your site's monthly revenue is to add up all the revenue it has made and then divide that by the number of months. So, if your site made the following:

Jan - $10

Feb - $20

Mar - $30

... then the average monthly revenue for those 3 months is $20. But you knew this. Not many people will calculate their monthly revenue this way because generally site's experience growth and owners tend to sell when their sites are peaking. At least they try to. As you can see from the example, using the average will pull down your monthly revenue to a lower value than your last few months if the site is on the rise.

Look At The Trend In The Last Few Months

It's now November. Consider a site that was tip-toeing around the $50 / month mark for the first 7 months of the year but then suddenly exploded and started making $200 / month for the last 3 months. Often, sellers will present the last few month's revenues as monthly revenue - if they have shown some degree of consistency. Obviously, it's in the seller's interests to use this method rather than calculating the average monthly revenue. So in this case, the seller could probably state with confidence a monthly revenue of $200.

Crazy Method

One crazy owner thinks that they can cherry pick one good month in their site's history and present that as the site's monthly revenue! Check this earning's history:

August - $230

September - $zilch

October - $nada

November - $10

Guess what the seller presents as the site's monthly revenue? That's right. $230. Unbelievable.

But also fraudulent. The monthly revenue is supposed to represent how much money the site is currently making. Simply picking a good month's revenue - 3 months ago - does not do this.

That Revenue Is Not Attributable To The Site Being Sold

It gets worse. Most of the $230 claimed as monthly revenue came from the sale of two other websites owned by the seller. However, the site being sold in this auction had no involvement in the creation of that revenue! Yet the seller attributes the sales to G34 Media to inflate its revenue! Talk about cooking the books. This revenue is personal income, not revenue for G34 Media. But, of course, deceiving potential buyers into thinking this revenue belongs to G34 raises the site's perceived value. I know I'd rather buy a $230 revenue per month site than one that makes $0.

Hiding The Costs

Revenue has been manipulated and presented to display the site in a good light. All costs that reduce the site's profit have, of course, been deliberately hidden.

• revenue from the site sales is presented, but no mention is made of the money invested in them (buying the domain name, hosting, themes etc). There is also the cost of labour involved in creating, developing, marketing and finally selling those sites - all omitted. Yet they all reduce the real profit.
• blog reviews contribute a nice $60 to G34 Media's revenue. Blog reviews don't write themselves  though. But, as you'd expect, this seller has left out the time it takes to write the review (another cost).

A specific task-time breakdown is not strictly necessary, but the auction holder should at least present a rough total of hours spent to earn the revenue. Otherwise how can a buyer work out whether the site is worth purchasing? For example, I don't want to buy a site that I have to work 35 hours / week to make $100 / week. A silly example, but you see that time required to run a site is a very important factor in your buying decision. These details are all missing.

Interestingly, the auction holder brazenly ignores requests for pertinent information that are made in the auction's comments. Disclosing this information would have revealed the fact that the site is making no profit and is actually making a loss.

If it was up to me, making false claims about your revenue would be illegal. Hold on...

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Auction Details

Sitepoint Listing
PR4 - G34Media.com - $230 In Revenue - BIN Bonuses - Blogging Tips Niche
Short Domain Name - Over 65 Original Articles - Lots Of Free BIN Bonuses

* URL: http://www.g34media.com/
* Established: Thu Nov 15 2007
* Page views/month: 1,300
* Monthly Revenue (USD): 230
* Google Pagerank: 4
* Listed: Today 01:57

Description:

Hi, Sitepointers:

I have for you today a blog from my network which is a year old this month, and is a valid PR4. The blog covers tips, tools, and resources for blogging and internet marketing.

http://www.g34media.com

BIN BONUSES ATTACHED: see below

I am selling because i need the cash and am selling many of my web properties, including this one. I hope to start a few new projects with the sale of this blog.

Let me tell you about the G34 Media blog.

The content on this blog is 100% original and written by me. It covers a pretty wide gamut from blogging tips to SEO and some misc topics. Most have been submitted to social media sites for backlinks.

By the way this blog has loads and loads of backlinks. Check your fave tool for the actual numbers. DNScoop shows over 60,000.

The design is a Wordpress SEO theme created by Daily Blog Tips and its called Studio Press Theme. This is a super easy to manage theme and has Adsense blocks built into it, so all you have to do is add your code. No messing with the theme files. Great for beginners. It is the reason i initially picked it out.

The traffic on G34 Media comes mainly from organic search including Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL. The rest comes from social media sites such as Twitter, Stumble Upon, and Digg.

I also will allow access to my Google Analytics account to serious buyers, for complete stat checking.

The most recent revenue on this blog was in August and has come from 2 site sales, a webhosting referral, and blog reviews. Total $230.

When i first started the blog, I did not actively seek out revenue, as it was simply a network hub for my sites. It wasn't till the last few months that i started to monetize it.

You can monetize with affiliate banners, as i have recently added, sell blog reviews, or add in Adsense blocks. I can help you with this if you need it.

The income potential of this blog is HUGE in the right hands.

The blog is SEO optimized and has the following wordpress plugins in use:

* All In One Seo (fully configured and fully optimized)
* Akismet - spam fighter
* CommentLuv - to encourage community
* Sociable - to submit your posts to social media sites
* Subscribe To Comments
* Feedburner Feedsmith - redirects your new RSS subs to feedburner so they can be tracked and counted
* Wordbay - you can create an eBay store with this one
* And many others

BIN BONUSES BELOW

If you hit the BIN button, i will thrown in the following premium bonuses for free:

* 6 months free hosting
* Fresh News - A premium wordpress theme (a $79 value)
* OIO Publisher - a premium worpdress plugin that is an ad manager (a $47 value)
* Another Site From My Network (my choice)

After Sale Support

I will help you in any way i can to make sure you are happy with the site. I will give the buyer my IM information should you want to chat with me anytime.

And if instead of going with my host, you want to add the site to your host account, i can transfer the site for you for only $20.

I have 100% feedback on SP and i am here to answer any questions you have. Simply send me a PM or leave a comment below.

Thanxs for looking!

Missy.

I also have other sites for sale. Do let me know which type of sites you seek.
Revenue Details:

In August 2 network sites sold, a webhost affiliate referral was obtained, and blog reviews made. Total revenue was $230.

Other than that, i had Adsense on the site which didn't make much money. So i removed it and now the site has affiliate banners.

The blog was never meant to be a revenue producing site. It was a hub blog for my small network of sites and domain names.
Traffic Details:

Mostly organic from Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL. I will give access to my Google Analytics account to serious buyers for stats checking.